All Forum Posts by: Armin Nazarinia

@TJ Sinn- Welcome to BP! Everyone who commented are great people and a huge help. I'd try to network as much as possible and start analyzing properties now so you can get some experience when it's time to buy. Try your best to take emotions out of your investing and really use the numbers to make decisions. Best of luck and feel free to reach out if you need anything!

@Dave M Dockendorf- Welcome to BP! You can learn a ton from this site and if you have some free time I highly recommend the Bigger Pockets Podcast. I hope to see you at a local meetup, feel free to reach out if you need anything!

Thanks for putting these on @Kurt Pauley I'll be there. Love meeting and talking with like minded people.

Welcome to BP Kush!! I would start going to some of your local REI meetups. We have some out here and I've been to a few with contractors there so you can ask questions to them and I believe they provide honest answers since you're not bidding anything with them yet. Getting 2-3 bids is important because you'll want to see what the cost is based on the location. Lastly have everything in writing so the scope of work is agreed upon for both you and the contractor. Keep up the research and in one year you'll be killing it!

@Brett Staniforth- As said above DTI is the important part. If you don't have income yet then they won't give you a loan. I got my first house with all of my student loans and the only part I had to get around was the Debt to Income. If you're just graduating get a job in the area of your degree that'll overcome the lack of long term employment.

Example: Accounting major, get a job in accounting so it shows you schooling as your "employment history" in a way. You can calculate your Debt to income using this calculator to get an idea of where you stand. Best of luck!

Find a job in finance and/or economics so you can qualify for a loan right away once you have an offer letter in hand with your stated income. That'll get you on the right path. 

@Hank Walter- I agree with everything these people said above. As for financing and your concern about employment if you get a career in the field you graduate in I believe that meets the requirement. My wife is a nurse so once she graduated she bought a house 4 months later because she got a job as a nurse. Not sure what your undergrad was in but that's what will help you is aligning your career with your major. Also the next biggest issue for a new grad is debt to income(DTI) requirements. If you can find a duplex you can afford the down payment on I would do that since you can offset the cost significantly reducing your DTI allowing you to qualify for the home. Best of luck I'm sure we'll see you at an upcoming meetup!

@Christian Benitez- I agree with everyone here. Get a job in Finance, if I remember right since you have a degree in Finance, if you get a job in it, you may not need 2 years experience because your College counts as experience if you get a job in the field you graduate in. This means honestly if you have a down payment or sell that current home, you could buy another home right away with all of the other parts aligned. Get something cash flowing. House hack if possible and while working the finance job build this up and any other business you want up. I know the W2 job sounds tough but knowing you have an end goal helps keep you focused and moving forward. Best of luck.

@Allan Kyariga- I would say that's a personal question for you to decide. If you have a goal of how much you want to make on this and you make that either way then it doesn't matter. If you hire another contractor and you don't give any of your profits to them, then you're looking at two ways to make money, but one with 50% more profit. What additional "value" does this contractor bring to the table that qualifies them to 50% of the profits? If it's the development side, dealing with permits and inspections, etc. If other contractors don't do that then that is the value added. Could you just pay him $5,000 for that part of the job? 

As long as you know what this contractor brings to the table that you are paying for in your profits I don't think it's a bad deal at all. You're still making money and hopefully building a good relationship with a reliable contractor that you can work deals with later on so I'd be fine with it as long as I felt like they added some value that a normal contractor charging the same amount wouldn't.

That being said I haven't negotiated anything like what you're doing or done a flip with an external contractor yet so I'm only talking from what I've read on the forums. I would say don't just take my two cents for it, search the forums for this kind of stuff. There are arguments both ways. This becomes more of a partnership than a contractor relationship so you'd want to vet it like that. Have you gotten multiple bids for the work from other contractors? I know you'll be successful since you're taking this seriously, just don't want you to get screwed early on by "trusting" someone when it may not be in your best interest. Sorry for the lengthy post.